Organic arsenicals as efficient and highly specific linkers for protein/peptide-polymer conjugation

J Am Chem Soc. 2015 Apr 1;137(12):4215-22. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5b01140. Epub 2015 Mar 20.

Abstract

The entropy-driven affinity of trivalent (in)organic arsenicals for closely spaced dithiols has been exploited to develop a novel route to peptide/protein-polymer conjugation. A trivalent arsenous acid (As(III)) derivative (1) obtained from p-arsanilic acid (As(V)) was shown to readily undergo conjugation to the therapeutic peptide salmon calcitonin (sCT) via bridging of the Cys(1)-Cys(7) disulfide, which was verified by RP-HPLC and MALDI-ToF-MS. Conjugation was shown to proceed rapidly (t < 2 min) in situ and stoichiometrically through sequential reduction-conjugation protocols, therefore exhibiting conjugation efficiencies equivalent to those reported for the current leading disulfide-bond targeting strategies. Furthermore, using bovine serum albumin as a model protein, the trivalent organic arsenical 1 was found to demonstrate enhanced specificity for disulfide-bond bridging in the presence of free cysteine residues relative to established maleimide functional reagents. This specificity represents a shift toward potential orthogonality, by clearly distinguishing between the reactivity of mono- and disulfide-derived (vicinal or neighbors-through-space) dithiols. Finally, p-arsanilic acid was transformed into an initiator for aqueous single electron-transfer living radical polymerization, allowing the synthesis of hydrophilic arsenic-functional polymers which were shown to exhibit negligible cytotoxicity relative to a small molecule organic arsenical, and an unfunctionalized polymer control. Poly(poly[ethylene glycol] methyl ether acrylate) (PPEGA480, DPn = 10, Mn,NMR = 4900 g·mol(-1), Đ = 1.07) possessing a pentavalent arsenic acid (As(V)) α-chain end was transformed into trivalent As(III) post-polymerization via initial reduction by biological reducing agent glutathione (GSH), followed by binding of GSH. Conjugation of the resulting As(III)-functional polymer to sCT was realized within 35 min as indicated by RP-HPLC and verified later by thermodynamically driven release of sCT, from the conjugate, in the presence of strong chelating reagent ethanedithiol.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acrylates / chemistry
  • Animals
  • Arsenicals / chemical synthesis
  • Arsenicals / chemistry*
  • Arsenites / chemical synthesis
  • Arsenites / chemistry
  • Calcitonin / chemistry*
  • Cell Line
  • Cysteine / chemistry*
  • Mice
  • Models, Molecular
  • Polyethylene Glycols / chemistry
  • Polymerization
  • Salmon
  • Sulfhydryl Compounds / chemistry

Substances

  • Acrylates
  • Arsenicals
  • Arsenites
  • Sulfhydryl Compounds
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • salmon calcitonin
  • Calcitonin
  • arsenous acid
  • Cysteine
  • methyl acrylate